Welcome to the July Challenge! I love doing these challenges – I send everyone the most random stuff, and they make crafting magic and create these amazing cards! I didn’t even end up making what I thought I would make – the envelope leads you in a direction… I have to say that this was probably the most challenging envelope yet…

A few things if you’re new to my blog –
Be sure to become a follower, I have lots of great stuff here!
And some shameless self promotion….
Crafty Card Gallery, my first app, is a card gallery app for the iPhone
and all idevices. It’s available in the iTunes app store. Update out in the itunes store today! – over 900 cards!!! http://bit.ly/ITCCG
Challenges and Sketches by Crafty Card Gallery, my new iPhone app, just released, with card sketches and challenges in it. http://bit.ly/ITCSCCG
And most excitingly, Creations by Crafty Card Gallery, a card making
magazine with a lot of inspiration, great articles, and great cards.
Available for sale here http://bit.ly/CBCCG

WELCOME TO THE JULY BLOG HOP!
NOTE – I am in two blog hops today- if you are here for the blog Hop for Melissa’s husband, please scroll down.

Hi everyone! Thanks for playing along in this new blog hop! The Blog Hop with Sean and Regina is featuring cards and sentiments celebrating the Christmas/Winter season! Most of us are going through extreme heat right now and we are looking for some relief! When I think of relief, I think of a crisp winter’s day watching the snow falling and watching the neighborhood children outside playing and laughing. I’m starting to cool just thinking about it!

We have some amazing creations for you to see and what’s even better is that there are goodies you can win!

Here’s my card:
It was easy peasy – I hand cut the tree, added some embellishments, and twine, and everything came from one sticker sheet and two pieces of paper… Sorry for lack of details – if you want to know more, leave a comment & I’ll get back to you…

Now it is your turn to blog hop with all of our friends! The rules are simple:

1. Leave a comment on Sean’s blog first (and become a follower to enter a chance to win the grand prize of a Gina K. Designs stamp set, a Gina K. Designs designer paper pack, card stock and a some embellishments)! 🙂

2. Go down the list of blogs visiting all of them (see below). Leave comments on their blog pages to be eligible for bonus blog candy from select blog hosts. Each blog will have the name and blog address for the next hop. Our number 2 on the list is Regina at http://cardsbyregina.blogspot.com/ (The next blog will be Regina’s and so on)

3. At the end of the hop, a random winner will be chosen for the Grand Prize and select blog hop hosts for Bonus Blog Candy. The deadline for leaving comments is Monday, July 23, 2012 at 8pm CST. Winners of the Grand Prize and bonus Blog Candy will be announced Tuesday, July 24, 2012.

A few things if you’re new to my blog –
Be sure to become a follower, I have lots of great stuff here!
And some shameless self promotion….
Crafty Card Gallery, my first app, is a card gallery app for the iPhone and all idevices. It’s available in the iTunes app store. New release coming out soon – over 900 cards!!! http://bit.ly/ITCCG
Challenges and Sketches by Crafty Card Gallery, my new iPhone app, just released, with card sketches and challenges in it. http://bit.ly/ITCSCCG
And most excitingly, Creations by Crafty Card Gallery, a card making magazine with a lot of inspiration, great articles, and great cards. Available for sale here http://bit.ly/CBCCG

I will give away a free copy of Challenges and Sketches app to the commenter chosen at random. I will pick a winner on the 23rd.
Thanks so much for visiting!
Thank you for visiting my blog. Now, go to 7. Alex http://prettypaperandinkyfingers.blogspot.co.uk/

I love birthdays, and love to take my birthday off of work. A few years ago, on my birthday, my now husband and I went snowshoeing and then went and picked out the diamond for my wedding ring, and then had dinner with my parents. It was a really great day!

I am challenged by man cards but I really like the card I made…

I found this great paper at my local scrapbook store. It’s Canvas Corp Scrapbooking Paper Black And Ivory Wine And Cheese Sampler, and the herringbone paper. I cut the apron by hand, and used bakers twine. The spatula and measuring spoons were from a Martha Stewart cookie baking sticker set. I used my stampin up punch on the top of the bon appetit tag. I got a new camera, and I’m happy with the pictures!

Hope you like it!

A few things if you’re new to my blog –
Be sure to become a follower, I have lots of great stuff here!
And some shameless self promotion….
Crafty Card Gallery, my first app, is a card gallery app for the iPhone and all idevices. It’s available in the iTunes app store. New release coming out soon – over 900 cards!!! http://bit.ly/ITCCG
Challenges and Sketches by Crafty Card Gallery, my new iPhone app, just released, with card sketches and challenges in it. http://bit.ly/ITCSCCG
And most excitingly, Creations by Crafty Card Gallery, a card making magazine with a lot of inspiration, great articles, and great cards. Available for sale here http://bit.ly/CBCCG

And we’re hosting a HUGE GIVEAWAY! Help us share the news of the launch of the magazine

I will give away a free copy of Challenges and Sketches app to the commenter chosen at random. I will pick a winner on the 23rd.
Thanks so much for visiting!Now it’s time to tell us who you have chosen to win Melissa’s Prize to one of us lucky ladies.. Please return to Melissa and let her know who you have chosen… Do not forget to Comment on ALL the blogs to be entered in the Giveaways!

Note from Jennifer. I’ll admit, I’m a little, no really, bummed that I’m not at CHA. Rhonda was kind enough to write this post about her experience in January – our first CHA. And I’m planning how we can go in January 2013….

2012 CHA Winter Conference & Trade Show Re-Cap

Hi there! Where does the time go??? With summer and 2012 Summer CHA fast-approaching, it is Jennifer’s friend Rhonda with a very belated 2012 Winter CHA re-cap post. A heartfelt thank you to Jennifer for making this amazing experience possible with more crafty endeavors to come (please stay tuned)!

The trade show floor seemed to go on for miles and it would be impossible to write about all of the inspirational companies and organizations that were in attendance, so I am just going to highlight a few personal favorites.

The first of which is Lindy’s Stamp Gang (http://www.lindystampgang.com/). Though their staff deserves a “shout out” just for being incredibly nice, their products are amazing. Their two-toned sprays, paints, and embossing powders can add such vibrant colors and shimmer to your projects. If your style is more vintage, they have their Moon Shadows line which has a rich, brown undertone. And it looks like they have just started to release some beautiful, non-shimmer colors, as well. I have found that their sprays do take a bit of practice (and old clothes if you are messy like me), but there are several how-to videos available on YouTube and the efforts are worth it. Here is a picture of the make-and-take with the colors I chose:

3D flowers were big at the show, and EK Success has partnered with Jolee’s Boutique to create some lovely felt versions. I was so excited when I recently found these at Michaels:

In case you are wondering about size, they are slightly larger than a quarter.

EK Tools 2-in-1 punches were easy to use and would make great borders or design elements for cards or scrapbook pages. I hope to add a couple of these to my stash of supplies soon! Decorative strips can also help make small gift boxes gifts in themselves as seen on their make-and-take here:

So quick and easy! See how the Groovy Flower punch was used to make the border strip out of patterned paper and also the purple chain design layered on top? Add a couple of pearls (one is hidden under the leaf) and a felt flower and you are done!

EK Success also showcased a beautiful Travel 2012 collection by Tim Coffey. Here is a link to the sneak peek at all the wonderful product lines they showcased: http://www.eksuccessbrands.com/CHA_Winter_Show_Sneak_Peek.htm

Ranger Industries, Inc. is another company who continues to bring us innovative and beautiful products. I will let the pictures speak for themselves, but please check out http://rangerink.com/ for more information.

Stickles with fine glitter and Ice Stickles with chunky glitter

For simpler designs and projects that still have that something special, I was drawn to Lawn Fawn’s display. It looked like a sunny day outdoors that just happened to be happily covered in fabulously adorable scrapbooking supplies . Unfortunately, I did not ask them if I could take pictures, but one of my favorite elements was a three-tiered clothesline. They used clothespins to clip their stamp sets to the top two levels and their card samples to the bottom level.

And after watching their “Intro to Gnome Sweet Gnome {Lawn Fawn}” YouTube video (http://youtu.be/ZMza5_q8uwU), I had to get the stamp set:

Thanks again to Jennifer for making this all possible! And thank you for reading this and coming along on the adventure! Whether it was seeing the latest from long-standing favorites like Ranger Ink and EK Success, or new finds like Lindy’s Stamp Gang and Lawn Fawn, it was an amazing trade show. I hope that you saw some things that will inspire your creativity!

It’s a friends birthday tomorrow and I needed to make her a card… She’s just a bit of a dog person ( huge understatement ) so I usually try to do a dog themed card… She’s the one who got me started on Scrapbooking many, many years ago!I saw a cute card on Facebook and it linked me to here:http://retrosketches.blogspot.com/2012/07/retrosketches-19.html where I just had to use this as the basis of my card.I found a dog in the Cameo online store that looked very similar to her dog… I haven’t done coloring etc with my Cameo yet, but I remembered there was an article in Creations by Crafty Card Gallery magazine that told how to do it… So I didn’t have to fuss with that part of the card, and I was happy with the results! You can get your copy here for only $2.99http://www.magcloud.com/browse/issue/407709The paper is from a beach stack (dcwv) and I used some twine since the colors went… I finally used my stampin up punch! The cuts are from the Cameo store. I really like how this card came out – its not to girly, but I think with the dog, it’s appropriate…